Late last year I went to Austin, Texas with a few friends from architecture school. I showed them around a few of my favorite buildings, including Austin by Ellsworth Kelly; a small chapel-like structure on the campus of UT Austin. One of the things that most intrigues me about this structure is that its original conception and design is not by an architect, but rather a painter. It was only later that an architect brought Kelly's drawings, models, and ideas to life. When we visited the interior was closed for maintenance, but we were able to pick up a lot of the design intention from the exterior of the building. To the dismay of my fiancée, who was also on the trip, we walked around and discussed the outside of this tiny building for about an hour. 

 

The use of a singular material, marble from the same quarry as St.Peter’s Basilica in Rome, is something that has always struck me when I visit the project. The craftsmanship required to create both the smooth domes and sharp corners that define the project’s form give it a quality that is not found in most 21st century architecture. The chroma of colored glass blocks that comprise the only ornamentation of the building, in addition to the texture of the cut stone, begin to give life to what is otherwise a foreign white form; this, in my eyes, is what begins to elevate Austin past a sculptural work of art into a work of Architecture.

 

The presence felt by Austin both within and outside of its site gives it a certain architectural voice among the many buildings that exist within downtown Austin. It is sited at the end of the “Capital Mall” giving it direct dialogue with the Texas Capital Building and acts as a conclusion for the view corridor that connects the Capital and UT Austin’s Campus. The Blanton Museum of Art is directly in front of it, allowing for the sequence of the mall to read as Power, in the Capital Building, Culture, in the Art Museum, and Religion, in the “chapel”; these three virtues are what Texas has built its livelihood on (and lots of oil reserves too).